Are you ready to lose 5 kilos?

So... are you ready to achieve your goal of losing 5 kilos (or maybe more?).  We thought, just to help you get started, we'd share some of the tips that have helped us.

Feel free to add your own tips in the comments section below - you never know just how much they may help someone else.

Here's Nerrida's TIPS:

Count calories just occasionally - if I have to count calories every meal I'd go nuts and give up. I took half an hour to count the calories of what I usually eat (and got a shock that it was too many!). So I figured out what to put in my morning smoothie, cut back on cheeses and snack dips and now my calorie intake should be around 1200 instead of over 1500. I didn't realise how bad some of the things I was eating were for calories.

Reduce your serving size - I have found that I can be part-way through a meal and starting to feel full, but then because the food is in front of me, I want to finish it. I was taught by my parents to empty my plate (which may not have been such a good thing after all?) I am learning to put lesson my plate to start with to avoid temptation.

Cut white sugar and white flour - I was forced to learn this one when I ate so much sugary junk food as a teen and young adult that I ended up damaging my pancreas. The sugar can be converted, by the body, into fat because it is un-used fuel for energy.  White flour also does exactly the same thing. Wholemeal and brown sugar (or no sugar) are much better choices and give you longer lasting energy so you won't get hungry as often.

(Bakers Delight are one of the few stores in Australia that make 100% wholemeal bread & bread rolls and its yum!)

Shop for groceries online - If I shop online, not only am I avoiding all the impulse buying of junk food when I walk down those tempting isles, but I am also saving money. Things just don't look as tempting online and I can stick to a list. I can also delete things things from the cart at the end and feel good about it. If icecream or chocolate is not in the house then how can I eat it?

Juice puts on weight - When I was doing a Gloria Marshall program years ago, they couldn't understand why I had stopped losing weight when I seemed to be following the diet to the letter. Then they discovered, that instead of water, I had been drinking full-strength juice (grape juice). As soon as I stopped, the weight started falling off again. Water-down your juice 50% or have none at all. Eating the whole fruit is much better.

Sluggish livers stop you losing weight - My DH (darling husband) had trouble losing weight although eating the same diet as me (and he was getting more exercise). He had the classic 'muffin-top' shape. The nutritionist told him he had a sluggish liver. The chiropractor confirmed this.  Once this was cleared (using liver cleanse vitamins), the weight came off.

Dancing can knock those kilos off - I am currently trying out 'Zumba'. When I was a young adult, and was still carrying an unwanted pot belly, my friend got me dancing and it made all the difference. My body became more toned.

Be practical about your menu - trying to count calories everyday and follow strict diets are hard (and I have had to do it when I was so sick with the Epstein barr virus years ago) but you are more likely to succeed if its easier then that.  I am choosing to follow the http://www.lightneasy.com.au/ menu plans. I don't have to think what to cook, I just make up a shopping list from the plans and follow them - easy (especially when I'm so busy scrapping and raising kids!). You can find their dinner menus here and their breakfast/lunch menus here.

Watch out for sugar withdrawal - Just like nicotine, if your body is used to having something, it will want more if it doesn't get it. You can get headaches, feel lazy & lethargic, just plain YUK, because your body is craving sugar. Recognise it for what it is and try to get past it. It'll get easier and it can happen every quickly in some cases. I look at a sugary bun these days and feel nothing - I just don't want it. (Potato chips on the other hand, is a different matter -LOL - but I don't crave them at least).

Healthy can be fattening - I thought because I was adding almond meal and organic coconut milk, full cream milk, wheatmeal and honey to my banana smoothie that it must be healthy and ok, but it added up to over 600 calories (half my daily allowance). I was adding too much honey & almond meal & not using reduced-fat coconut milk and cow's milk. I reduced all of them and added protein powder instead.  Also, we were eating too much pasta - it was wholemeal but still too much.

Use online tools - I used this website to figure out my BMI (body mass index), how much I should be eating and how much exercise I should be doing. It also has a calorie counter if you want one.

Walk 45 minutes - 1 hour if you can - Walking (or any exercise) stirs up toxins in your body.  The first part of your walk can feel slow but after about 45 minutes, endorphins start to kick in and its like a sudden body shift, you start to feel good, like you could keep on going another 45 minutes or even go faster. Endorphins destroy toxins.

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And some TIPS from Karen:

My absolute number one TIP would have to be Don't give up...  No one is perfect, and we WILL have days that we totally lose track of our goal. That's OK, everyone does it from time to time, BUT, the important thing is to 'get up, dust yourself off, and get right back into it the next day. 

Another very important thing is to learn to eat slowly. The experts say that it takes at least 20 minutes from when you first start to eat for you body to register its had enough. If you gulp you food down in a few minutes, you body wont have a chance to realise its full, and wont have time to tell you to stop..... you will most definitely overeat !!  

Another idea I found great was to eat from a bread and butter plate.  It tricks the brain into thinking you are eating more than you actually are, because your plate looks full.


Don't compare yourself to others. We will all loose weight at different speeds, depending on our metabolism, and more importantly, how much weight we need to loose. Someone who has more weight to lose, will lose it quicker than someone who only has a couple of kilos to lose. 

Measure yourself weekly. A lot of the time, as we get further into the weight loss, there may be weeks that we don't actually lose any weight, but by measuring yourself too, you may find you have lost cm's even if you haven't lost weight.  You will also find that if you are excersising more than you are used to, you might start to gain muscle, which is a great thing, but, because muscle is heavier than fat, you may stop losing weight for a while, even though you are still losing fat.


Always keep healthy low fat snacks on hand, things like yoghurt, home made fruit salad, or little snack tubs of fruit,  for those moments when you really want something to eat. You will be tempted to grab a packet of chips or chocolate bar for a quick snack if there is nothing healthy readily available.

Move more, park your car further away from the shopping centre, use the stairs rather than the lift, walk the kids to school. Anything that gets you up and moving will help shed the weight faster. 

Drink, drink, drink, at least 8 big glasses of water a day. I aim for 2.5 litres ever day. 


If you absolutely HAVE to have something that you know is not the best choice, then have it, but only have a small amount. ie: if you love chocolate (like I do) and you absolutely NEED one, have one of those little fun sized bars, and eat it really slowly, you will probably find this is enough to satisfy the want !!